Comparison between Sunfire and REL subs ????

Warrenh, I have OWNED both subs, I stand by my statement,the sunfire has quality control issues, power supply hums and is the boomiest sub that I have owned, no matter where it was placed, nothing helped, I am speaking from experience , this forum is for opinions, that is all I am doing.

Sunfire has a bad rep in "hi end circles"...mainly due to the poor quality of Carver componets after Bob left...bottom line: a sub is a driver AND an amp...a very powerful one at that...REL are nice..but Sunfire is no slouch...I dont find them "boomy" at all...but then again...this is if a sub..any sub..including REL ... is set up properly....hi enders can be very snobbish in regards to equipment....Sunfire are great subs...enjoy

I agree with Phasecorrect that there is some element of snobbery towards the Sunfire products by some in the so-called "high-end" community. I have a good friend who works for a top high-end store in NYC. He laughed at me when I told him that I had bought a pair of Sunfire Signatures (he had tried to sell me the REL Strata III, Storm III and the Stadium II, he has since "seen the light" much to his chagrin). I could never (to my satisfaction) blend, successfully, the RELs with my highly modified Magnepan 3.5/R. The RELs were too "boomy" in my listening room and relied mainly on placemnent for blending due to the absence of a continuously variable Phase control. The Sunfire Signatures were a revelation in terms of their ability to be seamlessly integrated with my maggies. I was surprised by the thigh, defined, smooth and dynamic bass reproduction. The Subs were dead quiet (no audible hum). The blend is so seamless that you cannot detect, easily, the presence of the subwoofer.

With the stereo Sunfire Subs, and my maggies, I have been approximating the performance of the "mega-bucks" speaker systems. In my room, I have almost flat response from about 16Hz to 20kHz. The bottom line is that the Sunfire Subs have enhanced, greatly, my enjoyment of the music.
I could care less about the opinions of those who propagate the negative propaganda about a very fine product.

Any Sunfire subwoofer could not shine the shoes to the REL. The REL obviously is a much much better subwoofer. REL is cleaner, faster, more air and more harmonics compare to the Sunfire.

In conclusion, the Sunfire sounds like smacking hammer and the REL absolutely a music subwoofer!

I just returned from a two hundred fifty mile trip to seek out the REL subwoofers. I listened to both Sunfires and RELs. However they didn't have any Maggies but they did have Martin Logans. I thought the REL subs sounded muttery and not at all like the Sunfire Signatures. This is all about opinions and I'm certain that several will disagree with mine too. Bottom line is ...... I came home with a brand new Sunfire Architectural Signature. Maybe the REL does work with other speakers. But even with the MLs they didn't blend well at all. As for Maggies vs MLs. I already chose Maggies for their superior performance over the other. Thanks for all of the opinions and a special thanks to those whom are Maggie owners.....................